Few of my clients are without some degree of private or dedicated fleet operations. Despite this fact, I’m often asked, “When should fleets be utilized?” The answer requires a look back to the genesis of fleet operations.
A client once said to me, “We have no way to know if we are getting better or worse in transportation. All we know is if costs are going up or down.” No wonder.
The for-hire carrier market is extremely soft, and shippers are taking advantage of it. Just one look at the results from some recent procurement events shows proof.
Companies have tossed around the idea of transportation collaboration for years. Some have dabbled with successful backhaul programs. Occasionally, a private fleet partner has provided contract carrier services for another.
I have found myself drawn into a new area of transportation that deserves a lot more attention – business intelligence. I’m naming it BI instead of metrics because I think it needs a label with more status and importance than metrics provides.
2008 was the worst year on record for carriers, and 2009 could be even worse. ATA’s truckload load index dropped 23% -- its largest drop since it started collecting data.
